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Life is full of surprises. We were focused on my darling Jossan and did not expect much from our (slow to become an adult, an eternal junior 🙂 ) boy Funtes.

Funtes, summer 2016

Yes, both Electra and Claire were in heat (with 2 weeks apart, Electra first) and they both were given privacy with Funtes, but we did not notice a single mating. Well, maybe he prefers to date while his humans are at work.

Electra, October 2016

Electra, Jossan’s daughter from her last litter, seems to be pregnant. I do not know for sure if it is a phantom pregnancy or a real one, but she should be about 5 weeks pregnant now, and went up about 350-400gr, so this could be for real! In that case, we will expect kittens between Funtes and Electra in the middle of November!

Jossan is perfectly well now on the outside, I am spoiling her to bits. Breakfast in bed and all she wants. She is tolerating her Metacam well, no side effects. I hope it works and that she will be around for many years to come.

We checked Leroy, Albert and Maven’s blood values recently. They also passed their yearly physical exam. They are well, and have no signs of arthritis or kidney failure or something bad. Good! Here are Leroy’s blood chemistry results, Albert and Maven hade similar values. Leroy is ground for our breeding, so I am happy that he is going strong, still. He is turning 10 this December.

Miii was tested earlier this summer, also all well, but she is a bit overweight and we are struggling with that.

I found out that it is easier to make breaks and do something else between medicating groups of cats, I get less exhausted that way. Now I give meds to 3-4 of the big cats, first, then to 2-3 of the big ones and then the kittens, they are the easiest to medicate.

The kittens are getting bigger. They got their second vaccine, and chip recently. They also passed the big health check.

The fur babies have been growing nicely and there were no problems with them, except for an urgent trip to the veterinary last week when Elric threw up a lot and went down in weight fast (I weigh them often, every day during the first few weeks, then every second day or so). It turned out that he managed to swallow 5-6 cm semi-elastic straw that belonged to the brush used to clean the fireplace. We are not sure how he managed to chew it and swallow it, but he apparently did. He threw it up in one of his throw up attacks, so we saw it. That was shocking. So many questions in our heads when we saw it. But we did not say much, I took the phone and called the veterinary to announce that we are coming urgently and what the problem was.

Elric got help fast when came there. He got a lot of fluids under the skin, medicine and he recovered fast. Still, it was a sleepless night, watching over him. If he continued to throw up, we were to drive to the hospital for an operation. Luckily, he had already thrown up all that irritated him, and it did not damage his stomach and intestines. The brush is now locked in the cellar where kittens never go. We are not 100% certain that the thick hair straw he ate came from the brush; it could have been the new kitten furniture, but we threw away the straw in our hurry to get ready to drive to the hospital, and we do not know. We removed that furniture as well, just in case. Elric is completely fine now, and the biggest kitten in Jossan’s litter. He likes to eat, apparently. 🙂

Elric, Leroy’s grandchild, he likes to eat. 🙂

So, now all are checked, no defects or health problems. Dexter/LillMupp suffered a minor injury on his tail during the birth, which looks like a little knot, but he has no pain and I do not want to operate it (since that would cause him pain). He is charming with his little ‘knöl’ close to the tip of the tail. He is special. ♥

And what about TF (tritrichomonas foetus)? Our big cats had it for some time now (almost 5 months I think), but stopped showing the majority of the symptoms; only sometimes their stool smells foul, acidic in a way, but they had no diarrhea and did not go down in condition. The small ones had no problems except from when they turned about 10-11 weeks. Or it was not a problem, really, but my nose detected TF smell, how I call it, in their stool. But I did not feel it for all of them. Then we sent the samples for analysis with PCR method that looks for the parasite DNA and we got an answer that all of them had it. They are symptom-free carriers (or – symptom-free… for the most of time, yes, besides that smell).

The good things about the kittens is that they are well; they did not have diarrhea and are growing as they should. I understand that many breeders and owners can miss the signs of TF and mistake it for a slight tummy disturbance. But not all cats have it that easy and are symptom-free. Some have chronic diarrhea and can with time develop anal incontinence. They can get various inflammatory conditions and get depressed. Some go down in condition as well, depending on their overall health status.

And about having TF mistaken for a sensitive tummy; well, there are not so many sensitive tummies around as one may believe! We had a few litters during these years before we got TF in our cattery and NEVER had bad tummies, and those kittens ate many different kinds of food, changing often, eating various stuff at the same time, licking whatever they saw etc (we cleaned and steamed, but you cannot sterilize the whole house, they will always find something to chew on). And we never had an upset tummy, except once when Claire ate some sand, but that went over in a few hours. We did take her to the veterinary to get some extra fluids under the skin though. When they are small, kittens can go down in condition fast, it can be a matter of hours, so one has to react immediately.

So, I am a bit skeptical when people talk about bad tummies when they get their kitten home. It could be stress and food change (hopefully you did not change food totally at the same time when the kitten moved to the new home?), or it could be something else, like TF or giardia. The causes vary.

We will start to treat TF on Saturday, in two days, with Ronidazole that we waited for a very long time (7-8 weeks, and we still haven’t received all the doses). Or veterinary ordered it promptly, when we got the kittens and they turned 4 weeks, but since it is a medicine that is obtained on license in Sweden, for some reason it takes weeks and months to get it. I will be updating the blog about how the treatment is going and with more facts about TF and the view on it. Now the kittens are old enough to get the treatment and we will finally treat both them and our big cats. All are in good health, and have good weight (some more than just “good” weight; yes Leroy, I am talking about you!) and that is positive.

This year we got no snow for Christmas in Stockholm, and it is unusually warm for December here, so I did not realize that the holidays were approaching so fast. We usually have kittens during the summer, this is the first time we have litters in winter. Now it is all about them, besides our work. I did not make Christmas cards this year either, but today I realized that it is okay – we are like parents with small childen, they come first, and other things can wait. I should stop stressing about all the other things that much.

All the kittens feel great, Jossan’s five, and LillMupp, or Dexter, Claire’s son. When it comes to TF, they probably did not get it yet. We separated the litter boxes and are trying to keep them uninfected. How much that is possible, I do not know. They feel good, have good stools and I do not notice any odd symptoms. Our big cats feel good too. The medicines are ordered from abroad via our veterinary, and we are a part of the study within SVA (Swedish Veterinary Institute), where our cats will be tested 5 times, once before, and 4 times after the treatment. It all feels good.

I did make one e-card, with little Dexter, or LillMupp, which is his nickname. The photoshoot itself took about one hour, with the most of the pictures looking like this:

Merry Christmas according to LillMupp

and then we got this one, which is our ‘official’ Merry Christmas card this year:

He was born via c-section, 31st of October, after a whole day drama. He was the only kitten and Claire was 69 days pregnant with him. The nurse came with him to us after the operation and we had to wipe him and rub him with the towel for half an hour while Claire was waking up. We were scared, he was so fragile and not at all as lively as the kittens we saw before, that were delivered the usual way.

The veterinary came to us with Claire as soon as she was done. She did not know where she was, was still under the influence of the anesthetic, did not understand that it was her baby, or that it was a baby at all. She did not recognize us either. The veterinary helped us milk Claire and get a drop into the kitten’s mouth, and after some time he managed to nurse a bit. It is a reflex. The veterinary told us that he is a very strong boy, although Joakim and I were very skeptical, he looked so small and weak. But he had a good weight. After 8 hours at the hospital we went home with confused Claire and a kitten that I kept warm on our way back.

At home, Claire, still somewhat drugged recognized her mom and got very happy. Albert got confused and failed to identify Claire as her sister, since she smelled like medicine and hospital, so he stood there in the middle of the hall, being confused and worried. When I showed them the kitten, Jossan did not give it any attention; she cared only about Claire, and was trying to lick her clean. Albert still sat, utterly shocked, and Maven and Miii joined him, thinking.

And then Leroy, our rock, came to the kitten, all delighted, and started licking the little one’s bottom, to help him do #1 and #2. Small kittens cannot empty their bladder and colon without their mom or another big cat licking their tummy and bottom (or a human mimicking that gently, with for example a q-tip). I don’t know how Leroy knows that, but he always knew that, since Jossan’s first litter. Instincts. So he took care of the small one, and afterwards he licked Claire.

We went to sleep very late, after being on phone with my friends and dad cat’s owner, who all gave me good advice. We were trying to get Claire to understand that the little one was her ktten, and that it was a kitten at all, and that she should nurse him. Jossan took care of the kitten as well, keeping it warm, after she licked Claire clean. She would not leave them alone, so we had to let her sleep with Claire and the kitten in their rrom. First I, and then Joakim slept on the bed next to their cat house. He slept there almost every night at start.

LillMupp, 1 day old on Mom’s back

LillMupp, kept safe between mom Claire and grandmother Jossan

LillMupp, 1 week old

LillMupp, 16 days old, showing some attitude

LilMupp is adorable, and very loved by all of us. Albert has recovered from the initial shock, and understood that it-that-we-brought-from-the-place-that-made-his-sister smell-odd is a kitten. And he loves kittens. 🙂 Claire has recovered fast and without any problems from her c-section, and she adores her kitten.

Jossan was close to her delivery when LillMupp was born, her kittens saw the light of the day 8 days later. I’ll present them next time, when I have more pictures of them. They are all doing well.

If all goes well, in three weeks Claire will get her first litter, and ten days after that Jossan will get her kittens. We are excited, but also a bit worried, hoping that all will go well.

This is Claire’s first litter, and we still do not know if she will be a good mom, if she will have milk for the kittens, if she will have an easy time delivering the kittens…. that is part of the reason why we tried to time Jossan’s kittens close to Claire’s, if something goes wrong, Jossan can help out. Albert and Leroy can of course help with almost everything, but they cannot nurse the kittens if Claire does not have milk, or has problems with it. We would have to do it, but a cat mom is always the best option.

We got to borrow two really gorgeous Siamese boys with exciting pedigrees; their pet names are Sigge and Jack. Jack is seal point, and Sigge is a seal point tabby (lynx) Siamese.

Jack is actually Sigge’s son. Sigge dated Jossan, and Jack dated Claire. Bellow are their pictures. And here is one picture from this afternoon; moms to be are resting on a soft blanket, and Albert is also there, cool and loving as always. He will soon be both hands-on uncle and big brother, and we know that he will be so happy about it. There are no better nannies in the world than him and Leroy! See, Claire’s belly is a bit bigger than Jossan’s, since she is 10 days ahead in her pregnancy. She maybe also carries more kittens, we do not know.

Jocke and I are just two ordinary people who have cats (or the other way round), live with cats and adore them. But at the same time, we are fascinated by Siamese cats and we have a cattery registered in FIFe. Sometimes we have kittens available to loving permanent homes. We feel that others should have as amazing cats as we have and we work hard to preserve health and all that makes Siamese cats so special. But before all, we love our furry family members all the same, Siamese or not.

Boys who never become full fledged studs, but live happy pet lives, and yet manage to become fathers to one or two litters before becoming neuters are extremely beneficial for their race. If it was not for them, there would be a couple of so called ‘matador’ studs per generation and all the queens would be mated to them which in the long run would lead to diminishing of the genetical diversity in the whole population/race and that is ultimately a bad thing. That would give us cats with poor immune system that are more prone to get sick and live shorter in average.

But not only for the greater good, but also because he was such a beautiful kitten, and one of Jossan’s big and happy babies (the Army of Clones, she might say), we are delighted to announce that one of the Jossan’s babies from the C-litter, Casper (now called Imre, and apparently, not a baby anymore) became a father at Malviken’s cattery, at Sunne, Sweden.

July 29, 2013, 8 (yes, EIGHT!) adorable Siamese kittens were born at Malviken’s, pure Siamese for many generations.

S*Malviken’s Maria Nyckelpiga and her kittens, one day old, photo by Kristina Norderup

Now they are three weeks old and lovely, healthy and growing well. Imre is now a happy neuter. Many congratulations to Imre’s Mom and Maria Nyckelpiga’s Mom to their (and our) ‘grandchildren’! There are 3 white boys, one white girl, and 3 boys and one girl with points. Here is a few pictures that I borrowed from Kristina Norderup (S*Malviken’s), with her permission:

Casper’s and Maria’s kittens: the pile of cuteness, 3 weeks old

3 weeks old

3 weeks old, and ready to take over the world

Proud father, SE*La Voix Casper

Casper, 3 weeks old, June 2012 (If you wonder about his manicure – no, he did not catch and kill anything before the photo shoot; his claws were painted red with a nail polish in order to distinguish him from his other white siblings)

Spring is in the air! What? Spring, on the March 1, in Stockholm? No, of course not! There is at least a month or two of winter ahead of us, but – we got tulips in our stores, plenty of them!

Anders who is Dad to Corto and Calvin, got the prettiest bouquet of tulips and I can only imagine how happy he was when he realized that his fur babies like flowers in vases, they find them so decorative… a sort of Morticia Addams decorative:

Morticia trims the roses; not in the most usual way (for humans). But, if you are a cat, Morticia’s way is perfectly logical.

These are a few pictures that I borrowed from Anders. The boys are not eating tulips, they just trim them a bit and play football with the crowns. (Tulips are not poisonous for cats, but they can get bad tummies if they eat too much of them).

We are not the same species, but our souls are made of the same matter.

There are both animals and humans I loved that are not among us anymore and I miss them greatly. I believe they did not just disappear into nothingness. I believe the soul is eternal. I am an atheist, but that has nothing to do with my beliefs.

I miss them so much, those beautiful souls, that loved unconditionally and were loved back.

♥ I love you, Affe, and I know that your Mom you chose yourself loved you enormously. You lived a life way too short, but you were loved from its start to its end more than many that walked this Earth. Love you, always. We will meet again. ♥

Love and care for your dear ones every day, you never know how much time we have left together on this Earth.

Alfred, Albert’s and Claire’s brother from A-litter died February 4th. He was born May 23, 2010. He was an emotional, generous, expressive, loving cat with opinions and when his future Mom came to us and met all the seven kittens, he went to her and sat in her lap. He chose her (he never did that to anyone else that came to visit us during their first three months of life). There was a connection and affection between his Mom and him from the moment they met. We are glad that he got to spend all the time he had in his short life with her, her little daughter and his sister Ada, also from the first litter.

Affe and Ada, summer 2011

It took me almost two weeks to gather strength to write that he died. I cried every night and during the days. The worst part is that I know how much Alfred was loved by his family and how much he will be missed. He lived way too short life, but it was a good life, filled with much love.

He was let go on the operating table, where the veterinaries tried to operate a rare form of abdominal cancer that progressed fast, that no one of the cats behind him in recent generations had and that he had no other risks for (FeLV or FIV virus). There is no known genetic component to that awful disease, but Siamese may be more prone to it than other races. It was too late, and he could not be saved, nor his life prolonged more than days. He was let go, and never woke up.

Affe will always be loved and never forgotten. ♥ He brought so much joy and love to people around him, and that is how he will be remembered.

Leroy’s story:

Week #3

It seems that Mom gave up on torturing me.

There is always this new, really tasty food out, and I can eat as much as I want! Yum, yum! I still get Tasteless Mud few times a day as well, but it is actually not that bad (or I got used to it). I love my Mom and Dad, they are not that unreasonable after all.

Week #4

Mom said that I am the best cat in the world and such a good example for The Little One. Then she put me and the baby in the cage and Dad drove us to a place I had never visited before. It was a huge hall with hundreds of other cats and even more people. The Little One was scared, but I was just curious. I wanted to walk around and inspect the place. Mom put me and the baby in one big cage, arranged everything like a little room for cats, with a cat house and curtains and a litter box. We got food and water, too. It was good. I could see many other cats from there and when I told my humans to take me out and carry me around so I could see more, they obeyed.

I liked being there. People came to me and admired my beautiful face and eyes, said how pretty and cool I was. I liked that not many stupid people were there. Mom took me to a lady with white hair that called me ‘Big Boy’ and everyone laughed. She said many good and true things about me, except for one – that my head could be bigger. Mom petted me later and told Dad that that was a nice way to say that I was fat: “He is not big, it is his head that is small”. I do not care, small head or not, I am the King.

In the afternoon we went home just to go back to the same place the next day.

The Little One was less scared the next day. She looked at me, and also, at her Dad who was there as well, and imitated my royal posture and utter coolness. A new lady judged our good looks this time, and she also called me ‘Big Boy’. She did not complain about my head (except for my ‘somewhat flat forehead’. Ha! SHE had a flat forehead!), and she also told me many nice things. My humans carried me around again and I saw many cats of different races I never saw before. People came to Mom and asked about me and were surprised that it was my first time on a cat exhibition ever; I was so relaxed and cool. Yes, what did they think. I am cool. Like, the coolest cat ever.

Leroy: “Carry me around! Show me the world!”

Cat exhibition – our story:

We were never that interested in exhibiting our cats; that takes a lot of time and also, cat shows are beauty pageants and for us our cats were already the prettiest in the world anyway! Our kittens’ dad Goofy has a title, he is a GIC (Grand International Champion, which is high title), but we would have liked him all the same even if he was not.

Until a few years ago, and even now sometimes, there have been cats that got sick on exhibitions and some of the breeders had to stop with breeding completely after getting cats sick for life. I was very scared of that. But now, everyone is cleaning tables, cages and hands with alcohol and the cats are handled very cautiously, so the risk of getting some bug is very small. And of course, you cannot exhibit a sick cat and there is an obligatory veterinary check when entering the cat show. The infections are not that bad for big cats, but if you have small kittens at home, they can get really sick.

We did not plan to have any litter soon, so we decided to exhibit Claire, since white Siamese are rare, and that way people can get to see her.

When it comes to beauty – Albert and Jossan are our prettiest cats, but Albert is not fond of being lifted after his injury (I hope he forgets about it now when he is operated and fine), and Jossan is fertile and can get upset and nervous if she is close to male fertile cats, so I do not want to stress them.

Leroy is chubby, and Miii is caramel blue, not ‘ordinary’ blue (caramel is recognized in England, but not here in Sweden, so she would have to compete with the “true” blue Siamese and she would get low points for her fur color, which is not fair. They are not even the same color! Jossan and Miii’s grandfather was an import from England and had the same, amazing fur color, which is not that appreciated in Sweden). Maven cannot be exhibited, not because she is a mixed breed – there is a class for them, too; the reason is that she has a tail kink.

But, we did not want to take little Claire there alone!

And so we thought – Leroy, although chubby, is such a cool cat, and has a lot of charisma. That counts for something, right? So, we decided to take Leroy as a company for small Claire, and since he already was going to be there, he could compete in his class as well (class 10, neuters). And so we went to Birka cat club’s two-day exhibition last weekend.

Leroy: “I am watching you!”

It went really great! Leroy got his first two certificates, CAP (Certificat d’Aptitude de Premier )! Wow!

Claire; a loooong kitten.

And Claire got two Ex1, which is the best she can get in her class, since she is only a junior. 🙂

Both judges said (in a very polite and nice way) that Leroy is a bit chubby, but also, that he is neuter and almost 6 years old, so some extra weight is not unexpected. Well, I am trying (still, in spite what he may be thinking) to get him slimmer! And not for the beauty reasons, but for his health.

Anyway, this is what they got as evaluation from the judges, on Saturday and Sunday. You’ll see, it is good! “Exc” and “Ex” stands for “excellent”. The ladies that judged our cats were very nice to them. Thank you! What matters the most to us is that the cats took being there pretty well, especially Leroy who enjoyed all the attention and was curious about the other cats.

Claire’s dad, Goofy, was also there and took two certificates (he is a neuter now). Claire met her dad for the first time and they sniffed each other and he also ‘petted’ her gently with the paw on her head. It was so nice to see that! They are similar in behavior and very friendly cats. 🙂

All the kittens from the C-litter have moved to their new homes some time ago and they are very happy and loved there. We kept Claire. She looks like Albert, since they are siblings and she is also white, but they are not that similar in temper. We are not sure yet how she will be when she grows up, personality wise.

Play, play, play!

Claire is a bit like Leroy in her attitude; “I am above you all and I am no one’s cat”. But she is also cute and affectionate and is purring when we cuddle with her. She sleeps next to us when we sit in the living room, on the pile together with the big cats. Albert and Leroy are the ones who take care of her (Albert) and discipline her (Leroy). But, also her aunt Miii helps a lot with the disciplining part.

Claire has a lovely profile; she looks a lot like Jossan. Notice how Miii is trying to became one with the background. 🙂

Jossan seems to be relieved that the kittens have moved out and does not care much about good upbringing of her white daughter. Well, she deserves rest and all the help she can get, she is such a good mom and had a lot to do this summer. Now she is back to being my cat and is very cuddly and affectionate.

Jocke took some pictures of the disciplining session earlier today; Miii and Claire, this is how it was. 🙂

Albert is going to have surgery tomorrow at Buba’s. The bone he dislocated in April did not jump back and it is risky to have it stay that way; he risks a possibly serious injury if he runs into something with his chest. Also, he is not comfortable (even less than usual) being lifted. We hope the surgery goes well.

They are small kittens, and we must feed them after midnight as well! They eat wet food several times a day, and their dry food is always in the bowls. There is no help – they are growing and need to eat, so the food must always be available. Am, whose fault is it that they turned to gremlins and just stayed that way?!

Little gremlins. They are looking at you.

This is how it looks after they all got tired and fell asleep in different places in the living room after running around for hours.

The kittens will get their first vaccine in two days. They have developed their little personalities more. We got one ad out two days ago, and we hope to find the right homes for them. We took individual pictures of the small ones, after many, many attempts and described their personalities in a few sentences here.

And, we have a hall of fame; the pictures we got in the process of trying to get good pictures of the small ones. The best we got can be seen here.

Calvin

Charlie

Corto

Casper

Chloé

Claire

And these are the funnier ones:

Casper: “I can fly!”

Chloé, Bucky The Siamese cat (Get Fuzzy) in real life

Corto, the Honey Badger. It is almost impossible to get a sharp picture of him.

Finally we managed to take pictures of all the kittens together! Well – one picture, since on two of them, Claire is missing – she jumped down from the cat tree. (BTW, the perspective is a bit deceiving; the kittens are pretty much the same size.)

All six kittens! From left to right: Chloé, Claire (back), Charlie, Corto, Calvin and Casper (back)

They are looking at me! In shock! Look at those wide open big eyes! (I was waving with toys like crazy in order to keep their attention for a short while while Jocke was taking the photos…) From left to right: Chloé, Corto, Charlie, Casper, Calvin

The light was not good to take individual pictures of the kittens today (and for many days actually), but yesterday Jocke took a few pictures of the kittens (and Albert is in the background on two of them).

Resting on their favorite blanket. 6 weeks old.

The kittens are almost done with potty training. The success rate of hitting the box with paper or wooden pellets is about 80-90%. They are still pretty small and quite clean, but sometimes they make mistakes.

Their mom hated the sand and we had to remove it and replace it with pellets. The edges were sharp for the little paws, I think, but that was the best non-clumping sand we found.

It is important not to put clumping sand or pellets in kitten’s sand box. When they are small they may ingest it (they try to eat whatever) and if the particles they ingested are clumping, they can get serious health problems and even die. Be careful! (This is important only for very small kittens, no kitten older than 8-10 weeks will try to eat sand. They do not move from they mom anyway until they are 12-14 weeks old,).

Two cute siblings and their big brother; evil looking Albert in the background (Albert had eyes like a sad puppy when he was small. The eyes in some Siamese change their shape and become more almond shaped with time).

The kittens learned how to get out of and back into the kitten house this week, and the house was put into the kitten play pen in order to calm Jossan down. That will be enough for one, maybe two more weeks, until they learn how to climb out of the play pen as well, and then we will have to remove it.

It is hard to get all of the kittens in one frame. On the picture above the little white girl is missing, she was sleeping in the tipi.

Foreign White girl, 3 weeks old, sleepy

Blue (or seal) point girl and one of the Foreign White brothers, exploring

The kittens are trying to play with each other, but they fail miserably. They mostly wiggle their legs with very little coordination, but they are progressing fast.

Albert must have noticed his siblings growing interest in play, since he, being such a nice cat he is, brought them several of his favourite toys and left them in front of the kitten house. I doubt though that they will be able to play with those any time soon. What do you think? (Here I did something I never do – arrange pictures. Well, this is an arranged picture – I took one kitten out of the house and put it next to the toys just to show you how its size compares to the toys’ size).

Lilac point boy and Albert’s toys

While I think that our cats look and behave mostly like mini lions, sometimes they, oddly enough, look more like – bats. Those ears!

Little furry white bats sleeping

Here is how it looks when they attempt to play. They usually end up biting their own paws, instead of a sibling’s paw or ear, as they first intended; and occasionally they end up on their back and cannot turn back for some time… well, it is a beginning. Soon they will be everywhere!

The kittens are growing. Now they can hear and they are trying to walk. We tried to take individual pictures of them several times, but they protest and move a lot, so the pictures did not turn out that well.

Here are some pictures we managed to take last Thursday, when they turned 2 weeks. The kittens are very similar in their type and looks. We believe that we have three Foreign White boys, one Foreign White girl, one blue point girl and one lilac point boy.

Blue point girl and one Foreign White boy

Last week when we weighed them one evening (we weigh them twice a day), Albert ran into the kittens’ room, really worried because one kitten cried and protested loudly when I weighed it. He stopped thinking that they are scary small weird smelling creatures, and he started licking and comforting his small yelling sibling.

Albert loves his siblings

Since then, he behaves exactly like Leroy – he is also the best nanny one could wish for. Jossan is so happy, she is just purring when both Leroy and Albert are with her and her kittens. Also, she goes out more often and leaves the guys to take care of them. We are so happy that we have so gentle and caring cats!

Our hippie cats, everyone is taking care of the small ones

Miii and Maven do not enter the tipi, but Miii guards the room. Maven is just curious. I know she licks them and cares for them when she can, but Jossan is not too happy about either her or Miii doing that at the moment, so they try to stay away from the small ones for now.

Jossan and I had a difference of opinions which ended in moving the kittens back to the big tipi (we did that on Friday). I also removed the small tipi from the room. She told me “Blahblahblah…” and was not thrilled with what we did, but – the kittens went unequally up in weight, since not all of them could nurse when they wanted to – there was not enough space for her to stretch. Now, a day after we moved them, they went back to going well and equally up in weight, so Jossan just has to accept she does not know best all the time. Neither do we; we humans and the big cats have to cooperate.

Two moms!

But, there are advantages with the big tipi; Leroy can come in and lick the small bottoms and the rest of the furry balls. My impression is that the kittens understand that Leroy is mom with no milk, but they do not yell that much when he licks them. It is okay. All of them have opened their eyes.

Yesterday Jossan did something we did not think she was capable of; she moved the kittens! She moved them to a much smaller tipi, that Leroy usually uses when he is in the kittens’ room and watches them. Now it is crowded, but she is happy and we let them be this way for now. We may be puzzled why she moved her kittens, but she knows why.

Smaller tipi – much better!

We think that we have one seal point girl, one blue (maybe chocolate) boy and three white or lilac boys and one lilac or white girl. The seal point girl was the first one to open her eyes. The others are still opening them.

The kittens are getting bigger, and have lovely small rounded bellies. Jossan has enough milk, and we feed her in the tipi, about 6-7 times per day with egg yolk and cat milk (once in the mornings) and wet cat food.

Kittens, C-litter day 2

Leroy is following us to her room and watches the kittens patiently. He loves the small cats and wants to lick them and takes care of them. They are too small, still, so he is with them only when we are there. Otherwise, he would lie all day in the tipi with Jossan.

Leroy licks kittens

Leroy sniffs a kitten

The kittens and Jossan are now in the smaller tipi, that keeps warmth better, but in a few weeks they will move to the bigger one and then Leroy can lie with them (and Albert).